Magpies
by ThatEnglishWriter
Summary: One for Sorrow, Two for Joy, Three for a Girl, Four for a Boy. Drabble fic set in New Moon.
1. One For Sorrow

**Magpies**

_**One for Sorrow**_

Nothing should hurt this badly. Even physical pain wasn't this bad.

Edward may as well have torn out her heart and left it beating on the forest floor.

Her feet ache, her palms are scratched from chasing him through the forest and the fear, the terrifying fear of being lost and, worse, alone brings Bella to her knees.

She curls at the base of a tree, shaking and sobbing and clutching her chest to try and keep her heart from falling out.

_He is gone._

_He doesn't want me._

Bella has never felt so worthless, so desperately unloved.

The damp of the leaves soaks into her jeans and she shivers, too weak, too empty to sob anymore.

A bird lands a few feet away, ignoring the still human girl and pecks at the ground. It's black and white feathers, mottled with hidden greens and blue, flicker slightly and Bella closes her eyes.

**A/N: Getting back into the practise of writing - this is a drabble fic, 10 chapters and will update daily. **


	2. Two For Joy

**Magpies**

_**Two for Joy**_

"They're gone."

* * *

There are bonfires in La Push.

* * *

"They've left!"

* * *

Phones ring, old men stride to each other's houses to spread the word.

* * *

"He's left the hospital. Never should have been there in the first place, not his kind."

* * *

Sue Clearwater hides her tears of relief from Leah, who is listening to loud music, and Seth, who is bouncing around wanting to know why they're having a bonfire tonight.

* * *

"Too late for us, Paul. But at least the others will be safe now. Right?"

* * *

Billy Black wheels to the doorway of his son's room and watches him sleep and prays that it's not too late.

* * *

**A/N: More tomorrow – thank you for your support. (There are multiple versions of this poem so I'm using the one I knew as a child, in case you were wondering!)**


	3. Three For a Girl

**Magpies**

_**Three for a Girl.**_

Charlie hears Bella scream at night and remembers another night when she screamed for the first time.

When Renee, sweating and panting brought a beautiful little girl into his life and Charlie had felt his heart grow three times in size as a keening cry filled the hospital room.

Charlie had held her that night, cradled her in his arms as she snorted and sighed softly and he had promised her that nothing would _ever_ hurt her.

Charlie stands in the doorway to Bella's room and listens to her scream and hates Edward Cullen for making him break his promise.

**A/N: Thank you for your continued support!**


	4. Four For a Boy

**Magpies**

_**Four for a Boy**_

Jacob is just a boy.

Bella watches him talk about cars and music and drink warm soda and she wonders about how anyone can be as simply human as Jacob, so at ease with what it means to be humanity. He even makes her feel more normal, more like a person, just for being in his presence.

Edward wasn't a boy. He would always be mysterious and supernatural and above humanity. He could almost be a daydream if it weren't for the pain in Bella's chest, tugging and scraping at her heart and lungs and ribs.

Edward would never be a boy.

But Jacob is just a boy.

**A/N: Thanks for reading - this story will only be 10 chapters long in total.**


	5. Five For Silver

**Magpies**

_**Five for Silver**_

The moon is too big and too bright and Bella can't sleep. She sits on the windowsill and watches clouds drifting across the silver whiteness.

Jacob won't speak to her. Not until she figures it out and she _has_ to figure it out because Jacob is all she has left.

She closes her eyes and all she can see is the imprint of the full silver moon on the back of her eyelids.

A full moon.

And Bella knows that Jacob Black isn't just a boy anymore.


	6. Six For Gold

**Magpies**

_**Six for Gold**_

She's just _jealous_.

Jessica is sure of it, jealous because despite his wealth and good looks, Bella never got jewellery from Edward.

Jessica fingers the amber stone in its simple gold setting. It's not expensive, Mike got it from simple market stall but it is pretty and it is the first piece of jewellery she's ever had from a boy.

Bella stares at the amber and gold pendant and Jess glowers as the other girl goes pale and turns away.

Jess fits herself under Mike's arm and ignores Bella Swan.


	7. Seven For a Secret Never To Be Told

**Magpies**

_**Seven For A Secret Never To Be Told**_

They're not her secrets to tell.

But Victoria is coming.

_Bella, don't… they're so dangerous! Get away, my love. _

Edward's soft voice whispers in her ear but Bella is certain that however dangerous the wolves are, they're nowhere near as dangerous as Victoria.

So she tells the wolves about Alice's ability to see the future, how Jasper can sense emotions, how _he_ can read minds and she hates that she betrays them this way.

The way that they betrayed her.

But the one secret she cannot tell, not to Jacob, not to _anyone_ is that of Edward's voice in her ear.


	8. Eight For a Hug

**Magpies**

_**Eight for a Hug**_

Edward's embraces were cold. Bella shivered every time and fought the chill, needing the closeness of him despite the low temperature. Besides, his skin had been the only coldness between them.

Jacob's hugs are hot. He hugs Bella whenever he can these days as though he was trying to reassure himself that she is still there and that her heart is still beating.

Charlie's hugs are rare. Sometimes when she wakes up screaming, he is there and holding her before he gets embarrassed and offers to make her cocoa. It isn't that Bella doesn't appreciate the embrace but seeing Charlie vulnerable is like seeing him exposed. It makes both of them uncomfortable.

Renee's hugs are expressed over the telephone. Bella was always more comfortable physically with her mother but her presence now would be overbearing.

More often than not, Bella finds her own arms wrapped around herself and she can never decide who she wishes was holding her instead.


	9. Nine For a Kiss

**Magpies**

_**Nine for a Kiss**_

He is so _warm_ and she is so cold, still damp from the jump.

It would be so easy to love Jacob and to give him everything and a portion of Bella's heart wants it so badly that she might break if she resists.

That is why she leans in when he does, why she lets his lips almost, _almost_ ghost over hers, a hair's breadth away, more of a kiss than a not-kiss if she were being honest.

She doesn't know how to feel when he tenses and looks away.

She definitely doesn't know how to feel when he says that there is a vampire nearby.

She doesn't know if she wishes he had kissed her after all when she sees who is stood on her doorstep.

Because the person, boy, vampire on her doorstep is the only one who ever _has_ kissed her.

* * *

**A/N: Steering **_**slightly**_** away from canon for this chapter. Last chapter coming tomorrow! Thank you so much for your reviews and support. **


	10. Ten For a Bird You Must Not Miss

**Magpies**

_**Ten For a Bird You Must Not Miss**_

His amber eyes burn into hers and she needs to blink, to look away but she can't for fear that he will dissipate in the night mist.

Jacob glowers at Edward and there are questions, angrily spoken.

Edward ignores Jacob and there are questions from him too, for Bella to answer, in a voice that aches with love and indifference and nothing that Bella can identify.

Ice and Fire collide with angry words and Bella needs to _think_, to work out what is happening and who is here and who she needs.

A day later, a whole day with words and thoughts and near-touches but not-quites, Bella sits in her truck and stares down the road. To the right is La Push. Straight ahead is the Cullen House.

Bella sits.

Somewhere overhead, a black and white bird squawks and flies away in search of new territory.

* * *

**A/N: In my head, this was going to be a Jacob/Bella story, changed halfway to an Edward/Bella story and then finished here – I suppose you could end it whichever way you preferred! **

**Thank you so much for your support in this story/writing exercise. My fingers are all stretched out again!**


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